Every Saturday morning for the past six months, Atika Ahmed has had a date with her computer.

She waits patiently beside her laptop for that magic moment sometime between 10 and 11 a.m when the show she has been waiting for all week is finally uploaded to YouTube. At which point, she will ignore her husband, her screaming toddler and all other worldly distractions for an hour of love, drama and heartache with the latest television obsession that has taken over the lives of Pakistanis around the world: Humsafar.

“It’s the first thing I do Saturday morning. I have to watch it as soon as it’s online,” said Ahmed, who lives in Mississauga. “Then I do a re-watch in the evening. Everybody I know has to watch each episode at least twice.”

The popularity of the drama Humsafar, which translates in English to life partner, has been the source of much debate, discussion and consternation since it began on Hum TV, a cable channel in Pakistan last September. Based on a novel by author Farhat Ishtiaq, the 20-something part serial in Urdu tells a traditional love story between a poor girl and rich boy who are forced to marry but eventually fall in love, until their relationship is maliciously destroyed by the conniving mother-in-law. It is the question of whether or not they reunite over caring for their sick daughter that has audiences hooked.

There is debate over if the show will end this weekend or next.

Despite the singular and rather simple storyline, the serial has topped ratings in Pakistan week after week, beating out dozens of competing drama serials. And in Toronto, it has managed unprecedented interest among people of all backgrounds — many who have never watched a Pakistani drama before or haven’t done so for decades.

“It’s a very simple story,” said Nuzhat Kamal, a mother of three in Mississauga, who says she hasn’t watched a Pakistani drama in over 20 years. “It’s not complicated. But it has a storyline or a character or something that everyone can relate to. I think that’s why it has become so popular,” she said.

Some say the show’s appeal is that it has been packaged beautifully: Fawad Khan who plays Ashar, the Yale-educated only son in a rich family and Mahira Khan, who plays Khirad, his wife, are both good-looking. The scenes have been produced artistically, and fans have likened the dialogue to poetry.

“Of course it helps that it is beautiful and well done. But it also helps that the main characters have fabulous chemistry together,” said Rimpi Thakar, who is Indian, but started watching the drama last week after hearing about the hype. She’s never watched a Pakistani drama before, but caught up to all 20 episodes in one week.

But Ahmed, a regular drama watcher says social media has played a huge part in the popularity of Humsafar.

On YouTube, tens of thousands of people outside of Pakistan view the show minutes after it is uploaded. Fans in Pakistan and abroad tweet the show in real time. Hundreds of thousands of fans dissect every phrase and scene on one of five Facebook fan sites within minutes. But perhaps the most telling indicator of its popularity among an international crowd is that the first half of the drama so far has been uploaded with English subtitles.

“I have friends who are from totally different cultures, who are watching it now,” said Ahmed, who has written about it on her own blog. “But that’s the lure of a love story, everyone loves a love story,” said Ahmed, who wants to hold a Humsafar finale party to get all her friends and family together to watch the last episode.

But with the hype, comes criticism. There are spoofs on YouTube, and comic strips that make fun of the characters and the obsessed fans. There are also concerns that the drama reinforces class and gender stereotypes, and portrays the ideal Pakistani woman to be one who either dotes after her husband or her child.

Kamal disagrees. She says all the women in the drama — both evil and good — are strong. And it is empowering to see Khirad, initially depicted as weak, mature over time.

“She is becoming a woman of substance. I love the fact that she stands up to what she believes in,” said Kamal. “The show really brings out the woman in you.”

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